All Discussions Tagged 'Religion' - Think Atheist2016-12-09T16:17:15Zhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/group/readatheist/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=Religion&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThe New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason by Victor Stengertag:www.thinkatheist.com,2009-09-17:1982180:Topic:1423392009-09-17T18:03:20.077ZDave Nicholshttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/DaveNichols
<img src="http://davenichols.net/sites/default/files/thenewatheism.jpg" style="float:right;margin-left:8px"></img> Many critics of Victor Stenger's writing have accused him of taking one basic set of arguments and writing a dozen different books using them. While there is undoubtedly some overlap between his books (and some with more commonalities than with others), I can understand where this critique comes from. I felt that way, somewhat, after reading <i>Quantum Gods</i> after having read <i>God: The Failed Hypothesis</i>. This book, just released this month, falls somewhere in between those…
<img src="http://davenichols.net/sites/default/files/thenewatheism.jpg" style="float:right;margin-left:8px"/>Many critics of Victor Stenger's writing have accused him of taking one basic set of arguments and writing a dozen different books using them. While there is undoubtedly some overlap between his books (and some with more commonalities than with others), I can understand where this critique comes from. I felt that way, somewhat, after reading <i>Quantum Gods</i> after having read <i>God: The Failed Hypothesis</i>. This book, just released this month, falls somewhere in between those two in my view. Not as good as <i>Failed Hypothesis</i>, not as mediocre as <i>Quantum Gods</i>.<br />
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Stenger kicks off this book with a look a the current state of New Atheism, and specifically, he discusses the recent success of new atheist books by Harris, Dawkins and others. He reviews a few points, counterpoints, and rebuttals to some of these arguments, leaving this first section as a nice overview of the state of popular bibliographic atheist/theist discourse.<br />
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The middle parts of the book are more a scattershot look at some of the key arguments made by New Atheists, with chapters on evolution, suffering, and evil. Many of these arguments have been made countless times elsewhere, and while I've personally read better treatments, Stenger brings a reasonable summation of his views and those of others, such as Bart Ehrman.<br />
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The rest of the book falls off track for me. Stenger launches into a large section which loses the narrative of the earlier chapters. While I love science and religion being brought together, Stenger seems to drift off to one of his lectures and forgets to keep the reader engaged.<br />
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From there, the shift into a study of Eastern philosophy (as suggested in Sam Harris's book <i>The End of Faith</i>) drags the book into territory best left out. Stenger examines various philosophical ideas and ideals and finds that many of the non-dogmatic, less-theologically based philosophies, such as Buddhism, can offer a great deal of 'spiritual guidance' without the dangerous burdens of dogmatic religion.<br />
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As in Harris's book, I feel this mushy, metaphysical subject matter is best left out. Stenger should have returned to a more in depth look at the current dialogue between atheists and theists. This for me is an excellent area of study which as been largely underrepresented. Stenger does leave a 'what is to come' chapter for last, but by that time, he's lost the plot.<br />
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Stenger is always an engaging writer, although his direction can sometimes leave the reader feeling a bit confused. What starts off as a strong look at niche of current public discourse devolves into a rehashed science-religion argument which then re-devolves into a feel-good look at Eastern philosophy. To repeat, for me, it was better than the plodding <i>Quantum Gods</i> but not as focused and successful as <i>Failed Hypothesis</i>. Three and one-half stars.<br />
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(posted on my blog: <a href="http://davenichols.net/new-atheism-taking-stand-science-and-reason-victor-stenger">davenichols.net</a>) Atheist Camel Chronicles by Dromedary Humptag:www.thinkatheist.com,2009-07-19:1982180:Topic:1251082009-07-19T03:52:18.933ZDave Nicholshttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/DaveNichols
<img src="http://davenichols.net/sites/default/files/atheistcamelchronicles.jpg" style="float:right;margin-left:8px;"></img> Hump has compiled some of the very best posts from his <a href="http://atheistcamel.com/">blog</a> from 2008 and the first months of 2009 and published them in this edition. Irreverent, passionate, and insightful, these nuggets of Hump's views are excellent primers for any would-be atheist debater, or for anyone who needs to counter the arguments made by true-believers and apologists.<br />
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Many of the 100+ themes handled in the book will be new to the average atheist reader and deal with…
<img src="http://davenichols.net/sites/default/files/atheistcamelchronicles.jpg" style="float:right;margin-left:8px;"/>Hump has compiled some of the very best posts from his <a href="http://atheistcamel.com/">blog</a> from 2008 and the first months of 2009 and published them in this edition. Irreverent, passionate, and insightful, these nuggets of Hump's views are excellent primers for any would-be atheist debater, or for anyone who needs to counter the arguments made by true-believers and apologists.<br />
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Many of the 100+ themes handled in the book will be new to the average atheist reader and deal with situations the author himself has experienced. Hump covers a lot of ground here, but the beauty is that each episode (chapter) averages about 3 pages. The reader can quickly absorb the points and move on to the next one. This makes for an excellent primer and should promote retention of the material as well. Because the episodes are taken directly from Hump's blog, they are quickly digested and stand alone without a deep need to hold hundreds of pages of argument to comprehend them. New atheist readers will find this very approachable, and experienced readers will almost certainly find the style well-suited for brushing up and expanding one's argument repository.<br />
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I love Hump's style, but I know some readers will find his stance overly-aggressive. He offers no solace to the believer and rails from all angles against the nature of belief in myths and false reality. Don't expect to find any measure of conciliation from the author toward believers, Hump makes it clear that he wastes no efforts on comforting the delusional.<br />
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There aren't a ton of books on the market that read quite like this one. The short chapters and highly-focused dialog make this a quick read which should have strong sticking power for the reader. Hump wastes no time trying to prove his points but presents them for the reader to believe or not on her own. A small complaint would be that I would love to have seen a proper sourcing for the information contained in the book (there are some references within the text, but many points are not sourced at all), but on the subjects with which I was already familiar, Hump's information was mostly spot on, so I trust his nose for reality.<br />
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All in all, this was an unexpectedly enjoyable read and offered information and support for atheistic arguments beyond what I expected. While all these posts are available for free on the blog, the readings make for an excellent book worth owning in any decent atheism collection. Signed copies can be bought from the author directly <a href="http://theatheistcamelchronicles.blogspot.com/">here</a> for the same price as offered by Amazon (without a signature). So, The Atheist Camel Chronicles is highly recommended to anyone wanting no-frills, engaging reads on atheist counterattacks. Five stars.<br />
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(posted on my blog: <a href="http://davenichols.net/">davenichols.net</a>) Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrmantag:www.thinkatheist.com,2009-06-16:1982180:Topic:1143642009-06-16T17:29:40.992ZDave Nicholshttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/DaveNichols
<img src="http://davenichols.net/sites/default/files/misquotingjesus.jpg" style="float:right;margin-left:8px"></img> Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman has delivered an intensely informative investigation into the history of the transmission and transcription of the Bible in Misquoting Jesus. Using textual criticism, Ehrman shows that the 'word of God' isn't even known since we have no original documents of the writings that make up the New Testament. We don't even have copies of the copies of the copies... Scribes who copied the words through the ages may well have had a profound impact on the Bibles we…
<img src="http://davenichols.net/sites/default/files/misquotingjesus.jpg" style="float:right;margin-left:8px"/>Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman has delivered an intensely informative investigation into the history of the transmission and transcription of the Bible in Misquoting Jesus. Using textual criticism, Ehrman shows that the 'word of God' isn't even known since we have no original documents of the writings that make up the New Testament. We don't even have copies of the copies of the copies... Scribes who copied the words through the ages may well have had a profound impact on the Bibles we read today, and those modern-day versions, says Ehrman, are almost certainly (and significantly) different from the documents written by the authors of the New Testament books.<br />
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By examining the various manuscripts that do exist, Ehrman explores the differences, tracing commonalities and divergences, drawing some conclusions as to what the 'original' text might read like, and making it clear that in many cases, we simply can't know based on our current evidence. Some of our best versions of the New Testament texts were created hundreds, in some cases many hundreds, of years after the authors originally wrote them. It is very, very difficult to know exactly what was in those long-lost original scriptures.<br />
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A history of various books of the Bible (and the later full cannon itself) is explored throughout, giving the reader a very scholarly lesson in the subject. While Ehrman's writing shows his own amazing intellect and talent for pursuing difficult investigations, the writing is engaging and approachable to anyone interested in this subject.<br />
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Not only were there thousands of cases of typos and other unintentional transcription errors, later in the book Ehrman looks at specific passages that were intentionally changed to support some views of Christianity over others. During the early periods, there were numerous cases where text appears to have been changed to match a specific interpretation, such as passages which allowed alternative visions of the nature of Jesus and the Christ.<br />
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This book solidifies the idea that the Bible is indeed the work of human hands, some of which had ulterior motives for ensuring that the documents read a specific way. Thoroughly enjoying and enlightening, this book is very highly recommended to anyone interested in biblical scholarship. Five stars.<br />
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(posted on my blog: <a href="http://davenichols.net/misquoting-jesus-bart-ehrman">davenichols.net</a>) Godless by Dan Barkertag:www.thinkatheist.com,2009-06-11:1982180:Topic:1126872009-06-11T16:25:06.307ZDave Nicholshttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/DaveNichols
Dan Barker is one of the most fascinating personalities in the atheist circles. A former evangelical that "you would not want to sit next to on a bus" (pg. 16), Barker begins his story in <i>Godless</i> by describing just how deep a believer he was. He started evangelizing young, and went on to be an ordained minister, Christian songwriter and playwriter, missionary, bible-thumper and soul-winner. His belief in Jesus Christ was complete, humble, immersive, inspirational, and honest. He seemed…
Dan Barker is one of the most fascinating personalities in the atheist circles. A former evangelical that "you would not want to sit next to on a bus" (pg. 16), Barker begins his story in <i>Godless</i> by describing just how deep a believer he was. He started evangelizing young, and went on to be an ordained minister, Christian songwriter and playwriter, missionary, bible-thumper and soul-winner. His belief in Jesus Christ was complete, humble, immersive, inspirational, and honest. He seemed like the most unlikely person to lose his faith, but as he tells in this book, that is exactly what happened.<br />
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After describing his years of evangelical work, he talks about the years during which he began to honestly question some of the things he believed, and found that his doubts only got stronger the more research he did. Eventually, he accepts his deconversion and renounces his former passion. His handling of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalam_cosmological_argument">Kalam Cosmological Argument</a> is very solid and one the book's strengths, as is the interesting 'Dear Theologian' chapter, whereby Barker assumes the role of a lonely and isolated Judeo-Christian God questioning those who assume they understand 'his' needs and desires.<br />
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The third section of the book is the strongest in terms of refuting apologists and directly arguing for an atheistic mindset. Barker has done his research and then some. This part, titled "What's Wrong With Christianity" leaves no argument for God and Jesus Christ unanswered. Barker deals solidly with the ideas of morality and biblical murder, goodness and ethics. He goes deeper in examining the numerous biblical contradictions and discrepancies, mistranslations and outright forgeries, including very strong arguments that Jesus was a character largely created out of legend and propaganda, with nearly zero evidence of his life available in sources outside of the Bible.<br />
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Finally, Barker sums up this book with a few chapters analyzing his life as an atheist and his work with the <a href="http://www.ffrf.org/">Freedom From Religion Foundation</a>, which actively challenges issues dealing with Church and State consitutionality.<br />
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I challenge any Christian believer to read this book and not come away with some serious doubts about faith and the idols they worship. The case for Christianity is so flimsy that it is very hard to understand how so many millions of people believe its central tenats completely. Barker is not out to offend or antagonize (unlike some other atheist writers), but he offers his arguments in an unapologetic and reasonable manner and directly challenges the reader to examine his/her beliefs with honesty and integrity. Non-believers of all stripes can find an excellent source of ammunition for countering religious apologists, and even believers can gain insights and reasonable interpretations of the mythologies they hold dear. Five big stars and very highly recommended as one of the very best books I've read in years on the subject.